Sure. This is how a candidate for president could behave--if that person was completely incompetent and not remotely fit for office and also sort of wanted to fuck over pretended allies because of obscure grudges.

So, that's where I think Trump is.

But let's get real about what a Pence pick says about Trump--remember when he was asking us to believe that he was a great friend of queer folks? Well no! The Pence pick basically implies he is anything but, and Pence also highlights the way a government can punish women for even thinking about abortion.

They are basically a match made in GOP hell. I think they represent an inconvenient marriage of convenience and are both too stupid to be politically useful. I also love the nonsense penetration that is their "ThinkProgress" evocative logo and the vision of Loud Trump hollering into Mike Pence's stupid stiff face at any event at which they deign to mutually appear.

Like in Bedminster NJ, making sweet ticket love in Gov. Christies' backyard. Because Trump is never not humiliating potential allies. He's kind of a monster that way. Don't be played.

Hi Vixen, I have an idle moment before I have to pack. Into the big city for a couple of days on business. Brexit is changing the financial climate for those of us in the investor class.

In your post one sees the usual pejoratives that are commonplace in respect to the two sides characterizing each other. The other side is stupid, etc., etc.

On a bit more serious note, I would suggest that our big concern these days should be whose intelligence takes the most practical course, and who is probably a psychopath. I have mentioned the estimate is that one out of 25 Americans are psychopathic personalities. Politics is the perfect environment for a psychopath to thrive, and as a consequence a huge number of them find this to be target rich.

Politics is also an attractive target for the Ruling Class. You can be an oil millionaire, a building magnate, or an industrialist and not be a part of the Ruling Class.

The Ruling Class always gravitates to government. Inasmuch as they are textbook apparatchiks, their ideas are inevitably those of the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy stays in place most of the time despite changeovers at the top by the Ruling Class. The Ruling Class have networks and contacts all through the bureaucracy and naturally they can usually be squeezed in someplace even if denied office in electoral politics.

In Washington, DC, your importance is often determined by what parties you are invited to. There are well-known hostesses that I may name in another post who can make or break an elected politician by inviting someone or not.

Most of the Ruling Class, elected or bureaucrats, are the same people that you see in the society pages when they are not holding office. You know, the guys in tuxes and the women in evening gowns standing in front of the swan ice sculpture? Next year, you may see them in Congress, or perhaps you'll remember their votes when they were Senators a few years ago...

Anyway, we live in desperate times, and none of our policies are working – domestic or foreign. We need someone from outside the Ruling Class who has demonstrated success in being very practical about what they do and how they do it. Apparatchiks make better managers after an outsider has broken new ground and solved some problems.

I sometimes imagine a hint of a finger-wag--although describing Pence's intelligence as less-than-bright might seem a partisan slight, oh no! Me? I intend it as a handy descriptor of a man who managed to, in his religious freedom exploit, alienate libs and, in recanting somewhat in the face of economic devastation for his state, the hard-core religious righties also. The guy hot enough to opt out of continuing his bid for reelection (when a certain amount of advantage goes to an incombent, no?) that he jumped on the Trump train, even though he was mere weeks ago endorsing Cruz and leaning "Never Trump". (There may be humiliations Trump adds to this beyond making him suffer several days over the possibility of dumping him from the ticket.)

Psychopaths can operate rationally--they just have ends that aren't normal people ideas about ends. They believe whatever means they use justify those obscure ends--but because they lack compassion or feeling for other people (no thought for service or charity, for example) one can usually suspect their intentions are self-directed. Some outsiders are capable of solving simple problems--but they are often one-note nancies that lack a sense of where they fit in the larger picture.

The larger picture takes perspective--and I don't think a Donny-Come-Lately has the range. Give me the establishment.